Oxford Innovation

Design Challenge Final - Winners Announced

School students from The National School, Nottingham; Queen Elizabeth Endowed School, Mansfield; Swinton Community School, Derbyshire and Northfleet Technology College, Kent, are celebrating after scooping awards in the Grand Final of the Silverstone Innovation Centre Design Challenge, held recently at Silverstone Circuit.

The Design Challenge is open to school students who work in teams to design new products for the motorsport industry. This second year of the competition has proved more popular than ever attracting entries from 13 teams of school students.

At the Grand Final, held in the Brooklands Suite at Silverstone Circuit, the shortlisted teams displayed their designs to invited guests before entering the Dragons Den to pitch their ideas to judging panels led by Nicky Grist (World Rally Champion and co-driver to Colin McCrae) and Pat Symonds (Renault’s Executive Director of Engineering).

The winner of the Promo Puzzle and Best Visual Presentation Awards was Troublesome Trio – Jessica Johnson, Morgan Brown and Charley Bingley from The National School, Nottingham.

The winner of the Vehicle 2020 Award was Team Fist – Luke Byfield, Matthew Warburton and Samuel Ziajka of the Queen Elizabeth Endowed School, Mansfield.

The winner of the Formula Fashion Award was Team Stig – Nicholas Gammack, Jake Cheetham, Matthew Smith and Tom Badkin of Swinton Community School, Derbyshire, who will now work with F1 in Schools to design their team uniform for the coming year. The new design will be previewed at the Autosport event in January 2009.

The winner of the Best Team Award was Clever Creators – Olivia Swinscoe and Lucy Wells from The National School.

The Engineering Excellence Award was won by Chris Hibbard, Luke Tait, Laura Garrard and Jordan White from The National School.

The Overall Winner Award was taken by CARE who also won the What Ya Call it Award. Liam Elliott from The National School designed a product to help blind people to navigate their way around Bletchley Park, including guiding them through the attractions and displays.

During the event, the students also competed in Challenges on a Playstation and F1 Simulator. The prize for the fastest lap time on the new Colin McCrae Rally game, donated by Nicky Grist, went to Jason Andrews of Northfleet Technology College whilst Jake Cheetham of Swinton Community School clocked the fastest time on the F1 Simulator provided by F1 Events based at Silverstone Innovation Centre.

The Silverstone Innovation Centre Design Challenge was organised by Darren Giles, a Design Technology team at The National School, Nottingham, and Dianne Wilson, Manager of Silverstone Innovation Centre.

Darren Giles said: “The students have really risen to the Challenge and it has brought the whole curriculum to life for them. The teams produced impressive displays and presentations that were admired by our guests and impressed the judges. It has been a great collaboration with Silverstone Innovation Centre, whose support has made the Design Challenge possible.”

Dianne Wilson said: “Silverstone Innovation Centre is delighted to support the Design Challenge, which encourages entrepreneurship skills relevant to the motorsport industry at an early age. The students produced imaginative and exciting entries that really used their design technology skills and wowed the judges. We would particularly like to thank the Judging Panel for their excellent feedback to the teams and the East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA) and Northamptonshire Enterprise Ltd who have provided vital financial support for the competition, and we look forward to hosting an even bigger and better Design Challenge next year.”

The winners collected prizes that included: a tour of the Prodrive Subaru World Rally premises at Banbury for the Overall Winner; a day with Porsche at their new track at Silverstone; Digital Scalextric worth £200 each, Design and Production of F1 in Schools uniform; £100 of HMV vouchers each, courtesy of Northamptonshire Enterprise, and a trip to Bletchley Park.

Additional prizes were donated by: BR Racing (a day at BR Racing, for the best Team Presentation) and Sarah Franklin Racing (a day at a race event to help prep her car, for the Best Visual Presentation).

Pictures from the 2008 final. Clockwise from left:
1. Overall Winner of the Silverstone Innovation Centre Design Challenge, Liam Elliott from The National School, Nottingham, collects his Award from Pat Symonds, Renault’s Executive Director of Engineering.
2. Marion Barnaby of Porsche presents the Vehicle 2020 Award to Team Fist (Luke Byfield, Matthew Warburton and Samuel Ziajka of the Queen Elizabeth Endowed School, Mansfield) watched by Darren Giles.
3. Dianne Wilson, Manager of Silverstone Innovation Centre, presents the Best Team Award to Clever Creators (Olivia Swinscoe and Lucy Wells from The National School Nottingham).

For more information about the Design Challenge, vist www.oxin.co.uk/designchallenge or contact Dianne Wilson at d.wilson@oxin.co.uk Tel: 01327 856000